


But Children in His Eyes

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [116]
Category: Jacksepticeye Power Hour (Web Series), Markiplier TV (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Dream Magic, Footnotes, Gen, Upset Logan, overprotective Dark, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28626465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: The Host has pieces to set up, a game to win, but first he has to help the heroes realize that if they want to get to the cannibal Bim Trimmer they need to go through Dark first to get him.
Series: Masks and Maladies [116]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 31
Kudos: 12





	But Children in His Eyes

The Host grabbed each of them in their sleep, distance was no factor to him.

Logan was cuddled in his bed next to Patton, drugged up with prescription drugs so he could sleep. Mark in his home with Amy. Seán had just flopped on the couch from a late patrol night and BB had curled up next to him. But the Host pulled their consciousnesses in all the same.

One moment Logan was having distant dreams he would not recall and then in the next he was standing on the front lawn of the Manor with Patton, Mark, and Seán. None of them in their superhero costumes. Patton reflexively grabbed onto Logan’s hand and arm, pressing into him a bit in trepidation.

Logan squeezed his hand back.

Mark was looking at the Manor in confusion before looking down. “Where’s my suit?”

“The heroes are in no danger,” the Host suddenly announced himself behind him, everyone startling at his impromptu appearance. “The Host merely borrowed them for a time. This is but a dream and when it ends the heroes will find themselves fully rested in their own homes.”

“Why are we here, though,” Mark asked, gesturing to the foreboding presence of the Manor, as if it could still sense their intrusion.

“The Host has something to explain to the heroes, and do not worry none of the inhabitants inside the House are real or can see the heroes. This is but a distant memory that the Host has access to.”

“What memory is that?” Patton asked, eagerly following the Host with a bright smile as he opened the door.

And right at that second two children raced in, physically moving through Patton and Host as if they weren’t there. It was two dark haired boys, one with bright golden eyes and the other wearing glasses.

The Author and Bim, one 12, the other was 10

“Get back here, I won!” Bim shouted angrily.

“Catch me first, fucker!” Arthur shouted back gleefully.

Arthur tripped and landed face first on the ground, clutching his notebook to his chest. Bim mercilessly jumped on top of him.

“I won! Say I won!” Bim screamed in his ear.

“That’s enough you two,” Dark came in, pulling them apart with his aura but also keeping Arthur from scrabbling away.

“I won,” Bim shouted at Dark.

“Bim, I am right here,” Dark reprimanded, the way he was holding Arthur up with his aura made it look like Dark was holding him up by the scruff like a misbehaving kitten. “I don’t understand why you all insist on playing this game if it’s always a fight. And Arthur, you need to stop cheating at games, you’re bad at it.”

Arthur stuck his tongue at Dark and blew a raspberry in his direction.

“You know,” Dark smiled, his tone clearly goading the young child, “for an author you have a shockingly poor vocabulary.”

“You fucker, no I don’t,” Arthur insulted.

Dark chuckled and set Arthur down, “Okay boys, tag is over, play something else.”

Silver was just watching from the currently crowded doorway, and something moved to shove all of them inside the Manor, almost the House had just swallowed them all and closed the door like a malicious maw behind them.

Of the group, the only person who managed to successfully step into the house without being unceremoniously shoved forward into the group, was the Host.

“The hell,” Mark looked at the door.

“Even in dreams, the Manor is aware when it is being used,” the Host motioned into the Manor. “While everything else is merely a memory, unfortunately the House is not.”

“Fun, didn’t think we’d e’er get a tour,” [1] Seán frowned as he picked himself up. The others all did the same.

“The Host is not quite so daring,” Host smiled. “They are merely here to watch.”

“Watch what?” Mark asked, floating a bit off the ground.

While Mark, Patton, and Seán were looking for something, Logan only had his eyes on one person: Bim Trimmer.

Logan looked at the little boy, dark slightly wavy-curly hair, dark eyes, and a form that belied what he would become. A monster, a symbol that there was nothing Dark’s power could not buy. Even the ability to make the deaths of actual people invisible.

Patton walked over, he’d noticed Logan’s distraction and now the two sides were watching Bim and Arthur stack small foam block towers and then throw them at each other and their creations.

“ _ Awww _ how cute,” Patton cooed at them, hands on his face.

“You would think anything was cute,” Logan couldn’t keep the angry sneer out of his voice.

“Never thought Dark would be even a half decent parent,” Mark commented. “What with the psychotic, murderous mob boss thing.”

Logan couldn’t get his voice to comment.

“To think that little guy grows up and kills so many people,” Mark realized, watching Bim playing with the foam blocks.

“Oh, Silver misunderstands entirely,” the Host told him. “Bim Trimmer started killing when he was about five years old. The child you see before you has already killed twenty-five people.”

“What?” Seán gasped in horror as the other heroes stared at the Host or Bim.

“But,” Patton’s tone faltered. “But he’s so cute and small. How can a little guy like that be a killer?”

__ _ That _ was the thing that set Logan off. The memory of terror that his rational mind could not control, of the helplessness he could not help. Of his own logic, his very reason for existence betraying him so thoroughly that he was afraid he would cease to exist.

“Falsehood!” Logan screamed at the top of his lungs, making the other heroes, except for the Host jump. Logan turned to the Host. “Send me back, I will not idly watch as you try to endear us to a murder.”

“Host is not here to make Logic into Bim Trimmer’s ally,” the Host promised.

“Then why are we here?” Logan snapped, motioning to Bim with anger in his voice. “Why show us this if not to gain our sympathy?”

“The Host is not trying to gain sympathy, he is merely trying to make the situation clear to the heroes.”

Arthur looked distracted by something he heard and ran off, leaving Bim alone with all the blocks. This let Bim grab a couple handfuls of the blocks that his brother had been working on and he added them to his own structures.

Then Dark walked back into the room, smiling with a sad look on his face that that gone the instant that Bim looked at him.

Dark frowned as he wiped the bit of dirt off Bim’s face. “How’d you get so dirty? Were you this dirty when you came in?”

“Mmmmpff,” Bim tried to pull away but Dark’s aura was keeping him in place.

“All the heroes have the wrong interpretation of their situation,” the Host warned; an image of adult Bim stood in front of them all frozen in time. His eyes nothing but coal discs and something about his skin was pale and his features sharper. His hands looked like claws, and something in Logan felt frozen in place. As if the very air around him had been sucked out of his lungs.

“What the heroes see is a killer, guilty of the deaths of many innocent people,” the Host reminded. “Someone who must be stopped if the city is to truly thrive. But the Entity will never see Bim like that.”

The Host motioned back to Dark who made another searching check of Bim before he stood back up.

“Logic and the other heroes are looking at the situation with too much objectivity,” the Host warned. “They are not just dealing with the actions of some common serial killer. Bim Trimmer may look human but he is by nature part demon. His cravings, his behavior is a result of that inherent nature but his choice to kill humans to feed those cravings are his own.”

“The Entity will never be able to see Bim as an adult,” the Host motioned to the adult form of Bim before turning their attention to the smaller version of Bim. “He cannot see six adults with lengthy, troubling criminal records but six children. Six children that he has raised and cared for, one from infancy.”

“Well that’s nice an’ cute but what yah expect us ta do?” [2] Seán asked. “Stop tryin’ ta arrest the fooker?” [3]

The Host didn’t have a visible reaction to the frustration in front of him. “In order to arrest Bim, the heroes have to overcome the obstacle of defeating and holding back the Entity. So long as the Entity breathes he will never allow one of his children to unwillingly stay imprisoned.”

“We can barely keep Wil in jail fer longer than a day,” [4] Seán groaned. “How we gonna keep his kid in too?” [5]

“There be some way,” Logan determined. “The Entity has been taken into custody once before, surely there could be a way to trigger such a reaction again.”

“I don’t even know what happened the first time,” Mark warned. “And he wasn’t even out that long, four hours max. That’s not time to really do anything before he comes back.”

“I need to speak to Bing,” Logan thought out loud before looking back at the Host. “Send me back, I have planning to do.”

“Of course,” the Host waved his hand and Logan was gone, as if he’d never been there in the first place.

“Keep an eye on Logan,” Seán told Patton. “We don’t want him gettin’ himself in trouble again.” [6]

“Right,” Patton did a mock salute and turned to follow Logan out. The Host quickly let him go back to the waking world.

Seán was next to want to be sent back, to which the Host quickly granted his request.

“Is the Silver Shepherd ready?” the Host asked.

Mark looked back at the little child who would grow up to inspire terror on his streets. He felt . . . pity wasn’t quite the word but he couldn’t think of a better word for it.

“Yeah,” Silver said, still watching Bim. “I am.”

And with that he was gone, the memory fading as the Host left as well. Each of them returning to their beds.

**Author's Note:**

> Accessibility Translations  
> 1\. Fun, didn’t think we’d ever get a tour  
> 2\. Well that’s nice and cute but what do you expect us to do?  
> 3\. Stop trying to arrest the fucker?  
> 4\. We can barely keep Wil in jail for longer than a day  
> 5\. How are we going to keep his kid in too?  
> 6\. We don’t want him getting himself in trouble again.


End file.
